United Nations Calls For Investigation Into Qaddafi Death As Possible War Crime

Human rights groups, Muammar Qaddafi’s widow Safia, and the United Nations want to know if the the dictator’s death amounts to a war crime.

Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: “It is unclear how (Col Gaddafi) died. There is a need for an investigation.”

Describing footage of Gaddafi’s last moments as “very disturbing”, he said that if the former dictator had been executed: “That would raise issues that a crime had been committed and we would have to look at dealing with that. It is very clear under international law that summary executions are illegal.

“You can’t just chuck the law out of the window. Killing someone outside a judicial procedure, even in countries where there is the death penalty, is outside the rule of law.”

It raised the possibility that rebel soldiers could be pursued for war crimes.

Amnesty International, meanwhile, called for “a full, independent and impartial inquiry” into the circumstances of Gaddafi’s death.

Gaddafi’s wife, Safia, also called on the UN to investigate the death of her husband and her son, according to a Syrian TV station.